-It's about having the cojones to show up as the brightest, happiest, badassiest version of yourself, whatever that looks like to you.
-You need to go from wanting to change your life to deciding to change your life.
-Deciding means jumping in all the way, doing whatever it takes, and going after your dreams with tenacity of a dateless cheerleader a week before prom night.
-Jen Sincero
Career Inspiration
-I've been reading books on career inspiration the past couple of years. As, I mentioned in
yesterday's post, this book,
You are a Badass has changed my life. I've read a lot of great books in the past 40+ years, but few have changed my life as drastically as this one.
You know countless of these truisms of which I speak, you've heard them or thought them a million times, but when they finally sink in and "get it," they suddenly become earth shattering news.--pg.230
An epiphany is a visceral understanding of something you already know.--pg. 231
It Clicked
-As the above quote shows, a lot of what Sincero says isn't necessarily new or earth shattering. Yet, she presents it in a way that really clicked with me. It was a long, Aha... moment.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.--Winston Churchill
Temporary Failure
-What is the difference between a successful person and one who isn't? The successful person never gave up. This is the part that never sunk in for me until now. Talent is important but it's not the only component. Dolly Parton says that she's always had more guts than talent. I never looked at it that way before. Below is a list of people who were rejected, told no, experienced a lot of failures... but they kept going anyways:
-Henry Ford
-Thomas Edison
-Michael Jordan
-Steven Spielberg
-Soichiro Honda
-Beethoven
-Fred Smith (Fed Ex Creator)
Because so often when we say we're unqualified for something, what we're really saying is that we're too scared to try it, not that we can't do it.--pg.151
Procrastination, Perfectionism, Fear
-All 3 of these have been HUGE issues for me. I put off doing or pursuing something because I'm scared and/or concerned that I can't do it well enough. You have to face your fears and jump in the pool and learn how to swim. Otherwise, you are sitting on the sidelines of your life and not really living it.
Your thoughts and beliefs dictate your reality, so if you want to change your reality, you have to change your beliefs.--pg.94
Your Brain is Your Bitch
-Your thoughts are super important. I learned this 17 years ago the hard way when my struggles with fear and anxiety finally came to a head. I was paralyzed by fear and having panic attacks. I had to drastically change my thinking, and it took time for my emotions to respond. You have to change your thoughts and beliefs if you want your life to be different. I have been actively doing that the past 7 months.
Faith is the muscle you use when you decide to blast outside of your comfort zone and transform your life into something that's practically unrecognizable to you in your present reality. Faith smothers your fear of the unknown. Faith allows you to take risks.--pg.117
Faith, Positivity, Gratitude
-It is amazing to me how being thankful is the antidote for so many of our ills. When I dealt with my anxiety and fear, gratitude was a HUGE component in my healing. When you have a positive attitude, are choosing to focus on the good and your blessings instead of your problems and the negative aspects of life, it drastically changes your outlook on life and your well being as a whole. Also, when you choose to face your fears and have faith, everything comes together.
Nobody who ever accomplished anything big or new or worth raising a celebratory fist in the air did it from their comfort zone. They risked ridicule and failure and sometimes even death. Think of the Wright brothers.--pg.65
Outside Your Comfort Zone
-This has been another hurdle for me. I spent so much time trying to seek comfort to help deal with the anxiety that I avoided anything that took me out of my comfort zone like the plague. Sincero talks a lot about how if you want to succeed you are going to have do a bunch of things you are not comfortable with.
Meeting Jen Sincero
-I got to meet
Jen Sincero when she came to Wichita, Kansas this past April to promote her newest book,
You are a Badass at Making Money (which is another incredible book that I will review in the near future). She was excited to see both of my books because they have a million highlights and tons of tabs in them which is why she described my book as well worn.
Give yourself the permission and the means, to be who you are REGARDLESS
OF WHAT ANYBODY ELSE THINKS OR BELIEVES IS POSSIBLE. Do not deny
yourself the life you want to live because you're worried you're not
good enough or that you'll be judged or that it's too risky, because who
does that benefit?
Last Quote
-I will leave you with this last quote. If you want to start living an awesome life, go get Jen Sincero's book today. Contact me via the comment section and/or on social media (
FB,
Twitter) and let me know what you think!
Disclaimer to my fellow Christians: Sincero talks about how having faith in God is important, but she embraces a lot of New Age thinking and talks about God in terms of "The Universe". This didn't bother me, I just crossed out Universe and wrote in God. This book actually motivated me to start having my Quiet Time in God's Word more often because she talks about how important it is to have faith.
